What Goes Down
by Xyrule
Summary: Riko may have discovered many secrets on her path downward, but what if those secrets had already been uncovered...And that delver has decided to finally return to the surface? Set after the end of Season 1.
1. What Goes Down

**That's right, another story! This one isn't going to be terribly long, but I do hope everyone enjoys it!**

* * *

A woman stood in the remains of a former building, frowning as she waved a hand to push a strand of her long blonde hair out of her face as she raised the artifact held in her other hand.

It was small, a clear sphere with a decorative base and what seemed to be some form of liquid inside, which when she shook it resulted in white flakes shaking around in the current. It was a curious device, though she had no idea what its purpose was.

There were many things like this here in the shell of this place, which must have been a former shop. The walls still stood, but the roof had fallen out long ago, and the red light of the massive ceiling high above was the only source of illumination. She still had the typical delver accessory of a hat embedded with a light-bringing relic, but she didn't need to waste the energy here. No, this odd natural light would do just fine, especially after she'd just descended past the glowing caves of the 7th Layer.

Of course, low light meant things could be hidden, and behind her, watching through a broken window, there was another presence, its eyes narrowed as it tracked her movements through the store, the transparent sphere in hand as she shook it occasionally. It was strangely therapeutic seeing the white powder swirling around inside.

"It's a snowglobe." came a voice, and she jumped, dropping the item, which bounced on the ground as she instinctively raised her hand to her back, cursing herself at the muscle memory. She hadn't possessed her scythe in months, even back when she had not yet gone on her Last Dive.

"Who's there?" she asked, knowing very well the dangers of the Abyss this far down. Even on the 2nd Layer, there were monsters who could copy human voices, so all the way in what she assumed to be the 8th, there was no doubt that things here were far more dangerous. It didn't help that she was already jumpy from the massive vaguely humanoid structures that seemed to stand guard at the entrance to the stairwell out of the glowing caverns.

"Calm down, I'm human too." came the voice again, as the presence entered the building, stepping carefully through the window so as to avoid the broken glass, and she raised her hand to her head to tap the relic and shed light on this other person.

Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight. It really was another person, all the way down here at the bottom! This was over 22,000 meters down, and she had not seen a single soul ever since leaving Idofront weeks ago on this final journey.

She wasn't fond of Bondrewd, finding his title of "Sovereign of Dawn" to be pretentious for the kinds of horrible things he did in his labs, but she may even prefer him over the total solitude that came from being down this far. Seeing another person, even someone that surprised her, caused all sorts of things to well up in her.

Still, this person was hardly a boy. At a guess, she had to say he was around 15, standing just above her own stature, and she was a relatively short person despite her reputation. The boy wore an odd mismatch of clothes as well, made of fabrics she didn't recognize that he'd most likely simply scavenged out of the various ruined buildings here. His eyes were light-hearted, but the grin on his face, practically just a line stretching wide, was creepy, an expression that made her wary again.

Of course, she was too smart to immediately believe that this was a real person. She had not yet seen any monsters in this quiet city, but that didn't mean they didn't exist. This boy could be a-

"Some of them play music too." he said, cutting her from her thoughts as she blinked, her arms lowering in surprise at the calm tone he spoke with. It was as if he had lived here all his life, a way of speaking she rarely heard outside of other White Whistles, and his dialect was strange as well, using vocabulary in ways that made her head spin.

"Huh?" An embarrassing reaction, and he laughed, holding a hand out to point at the object in her hand.

"The snowglobes. Most of them are useless now, but occasionally you'll find one that plays a song about a mythical aubade made of snow." He looked off to the side, his gaze crossing over the various other trinkets lying scattered on the ground nearby. "As the song goes, children put a magic hat on him and he started moving. They called him Frosty."

She couldn't just stand there and gape at him, so she coughed to clear her throat, holding the 'snowglobe' up so it was in the path of her headlight. "Frosty...Wait, how could they have known what snow is? There's no such thing as snow anywhere within thousands of kilometers of Orth."

"Well, then obviously they aren't from here, aren't they? Or at the very least, they interacted with foreigners. Is that so strange?"

She was about to reply, before he waved his hand as he turned to head out the door she'd kicked down to enter here. "Come on, it gets kind of spooky at night. That red light switches on and off every 18 hours."

She wasn't entirely sure what to do, so she let her instinct decide. Despite the creepy grin, she didn't really see anything strange about this boy, other than the fact that he was inexplicably here at the bottom before her and clearly not a White Whistle. She'd taken on much larger monsters than herself before, so even without her whistle, sent up along with her notes to the surface, she could still take this guy on.

She blinked as she noticed the back of his neck, three marks situated in the middle. The one in the center, a small turquoise circle seemingly tattooed into his skin, wasn't anything she recognized, but her eyes narrowed at the shapes to either side, small diamonds with round red dots at the upper and lower corner.

That shape was very familiar to her after seeing it so many times on Ozen. So, this strange person possessed two Thousand-Men Pins, and who knew how many more underneath his clothes.

He caught her staring, glancing behind him as his hand reached up to cover the marks while they walked down the rubble-filled street. "Ignore that, I don't really use them. There's nothing down here that can hurt us, only humans are capable of passing through to this Layer."

She blinked at the statement, speeding up her pace to keep in line with the surprisingly quick child, who easily picked through the best path around obstacles as if he'd gone this way a million times. "They can't? Is this...Is this the bottom?"

He shrugged, before shaking his head. "For the sake of practicality, yes. Below here is just more tiers of the same city, about a thousand meters farther. There's nothing beyond that, just solid rock. If you were here expecting some grand prize at the end, you'll be disappointed."

"What is your name? How long have you been down here?" He didn't have a whistle around his neck, or any real pockets on his person that may hide one.

"I reached the bottom about a year ago. Though, I suppose it's been longer on the surface thanks to the time dilation. And my name's Andrew. I'm no one you would have heard of, I was just a nobody back on the surface."

It was a little hard to concentrate with the grin on his face, which stayed exactly the same no matter how much he talked. It was odd, but she had a feeling she'd get used to it over time. "Lyza. Are you a delver? What rank are you? How old are you?"

He laughed as they rounded a corner, leading to a similarly collapsed building, though this one had been cleared of fallen debris, likely with the help of his extra strength courtesy of the artifacts. In the center of the space was a small fire, sitting close to a torn sleeping bag and a small pile of various possessions he owned. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you? Well, then again, I'd be surprised if anyone beat me here. You're the first person to ever make it this far besides me. Congratulations." He grunted as he lowered himself to sit cross-legged at the fire, which he began to light with a couple flintstones that had been set beside it.

"The first…" She frowned, sitting next to him and removing her heavy backpack, setting it behind her as she watched him attempting to light the fire.

A few sparks came, before the sticks inside caught, the flame slowly growing as he blew carefully on it, until there was a successful campfire sitting in front of them, lighting up the area as, right on time, the red lighting of the cave ceiling blinked out in an instant. How many times had he been surprised and tripped himself over something with this sudden change?

"So, nobody else came here? I'm the only other one?" she asked, and he nodded, humming to himself as he went over to the pile, drawing out what seemed to be some sort of meat wrapped in leaves, which he handed to her.

"It's already cooked, don't worry about waiting. I've got plenty, this was just what I brought from my storage area to eat tonight."

He smiled as she tentatively unwrapped the leaf, looking at the chunk of meat she held in hand, before accepting the offer, taking a bite and blinking as she found it surprisingly good.

It reminded her of how neritantan tasted, but it was chewier, with some kind of consistency that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Perhaps it was just to be chalked up to him not being a great cook, but she still ate anyway, finding herself ravenous now that she was sitting still for the first time in days, coupled with the fact that meat was still something she considered more a treat than a staple.

He laughed at the sight, leaning back to rest his hands on his sleeping bag. "Calm down, there's plenty left. I don't mind sharing, there's plenty of game here since there's nothing to eat it. That's something that the ancients here called a 'dog'. There's all kinds of species that used to be domesticated by them that now roam around freely. Honestly there's almost too many, I try to hunt down as many as I can or else they'll start searching my base here for a quick meal."

"The ancients? How do you know what they called these?" Now, her questions were less suspicious and more genuinely curious, the food in her belly helping to calm her and let her think more clearly about this odd situation.

"I can read their language. A lot of my free time here has been spent scrounging around for books and flyers, so I've learned a lot about this place. You're a bit too late, I'm the first to learn the truth of the Abyss."


	2. Lofty Ambitions

"Hey, look, look at this thing I found!" Lyza said excitedly, having removed much of the contents of her delving bag and scattered them around her in a big mess, along with several empty bottles lying around the neat pile Andrew had put them in for her.

She had dragged out what appeared to be an egg about the size of an ostrich's, a mottled brown and green in coloration as she held it up to the firelight, grinning stupidly as she shook slightly where she sat, disoriented from the sheer amount of alcohol she'd consumed in the last hour. How she could fit all of it in her lightweight body, he had no idea.

"Isn't it pretty? I found it on the 4th Layer. Poor thing must have fallen from somewhere above, I have no idea how it survived though...I've been taking care of it since I got it, but I don't even know what species it is."

Most of the hour up until now had consisted of her dancing around like an idiot, so the fact that she was suddenly lucid and making sense now that she'd hit the peak of her drunkenness caught Andrew's attention, and he hummed as he crossed his arms, leaning forward to look at the egg more closely. "Do you often grab random eggs you find? It might be dead anyway, you know."

The woman frowned, holding it tighter to her chest. "Don't say that with such a creepy grin, I don't want you cooking my baby!" she complained, sticking her tongue out like a child.

He laughed, leaning back to his normal sitting position. At first, Lyza had been wary of him, but after showing her his stash of various alcoholic drinks he'd found around the city, she had quickly warmed up to his presence, though it came at the cost of much of the contents. The woman was immature to be sure, but he was experienced enough to tell that, even in this unguarded state, she was still a force to be reckoned with. Had he any interest in ambushing her, he'd have a very hard time succeeding even with the strength granted by his Pins, not that he wanted to hurt the one person who'd given him company in such a long time.

"Do you have family on the surface?" he asked the woman, who tilted her head. "You've got a strong motherly instinct, so I was just wondering. Then again, you don't look old enough to have kids…"

She blinked, before grinning again, setting the egg down carefully in her bag before standing up, waving her arms in the air to get his attention, not that there was anything else to look at besides her right now. "Actually, you're right! I've got a little daughter up on the surface! Little Riko, she was two when I decided to go on my Last Dive." She frowned again, sitting down as she sighed and stared at the ground between her legs. "I didn't really want to leave her behind, but delvers can't stick with their families very often, and especially not me as a White Whistle…"

The boy nodded, reaching forward to pat her knee reassuringly. "That seems to be a trait common to both of our time periods. My parents were the same way, they never had much chance to see me."

The woman sighed, grabbing another bottle and biting it to pop the cap with her teeth, spitting it aside as she sighed, her grin lowering. "The Abyss calls to everyone, and certainly I am no exception. I love Riko, of course, but I couldn't raise her. So many miracles had to happen for her to see her first sunrise, I couldn't get in the way and force her to stick to the surface."

Even if he had the ability to lower his grin, he wouldn't have at the statement, his eyes glinting as he took a swig from his own drink, some form of extremely flat soda that he'd found during the day's exploration prior to meeting Lyza. "And you didn't want to end up a housewife, I bet. Looking at you, you remind me of a man I considered my surrogate father. Obsessed with the netherworld and unable to defy the call."

Lyza laughed, turning the bottle upside-down over her mouth and downing half the liquid in one long gulp before exhaling heavily, her frown washed away by the alcohol. "Riko's the same way. As soon as she was able to crawl, her first steps were towards the center. I knew that I couldn't get in her way, and I didn't want to lose my own penchant for adventure either. So, I left her. It helped that her father was long dead by then." She briefly frowned, before laughing, a high-pitched noise punctuated by a loud burp that didn't fit her appearance at all. "Torka was always a runt, he was even shorter than my pupil Jiruo. But that guy had some serious guts, and he became a Black Whistle faster than even I did. Always said he was going to surpass me, always wanted to become a White Whistle before I could get the chance."

Andrew hesitated, looking at the ground briefly before nodding. "I...I knew someone like that too. My best friend back when I was primarily in the 2nd Layer. And did, Torka-"

"The idiot got killed by foreign delvers." Lyza stated, cutting him off as she laughed again, waving her free hand in the air. "I mean, seriously. He wanted to surpass me, yet he gets taken down by a bunch of humans! What White Whistle falls to anything other than the Curse or some ultra-powerful monster? Pathetic, really." She frowned, clenching both hands around the body of her bottle. "But he made me what I wanted to be. It was him that my Whistle was made from, you know. A physical reminder that he was always with me."

The boy gave her a few seconds to silently think about her past, before continuing on. "Where is your whistle now? Were you going to get it when you went back up?"

The woman blinked, looking up at him. "Back up? I've already left the 6th Layer, there's no chance of returning for me. It's one of the few absolute truths of the Abyss…" She smiled sadly, setting the bottle aside so she could lean back on her arms and look up at the dark stone done that made up the ceiling of this massive former city. "I sent Torka up along with my more recent field notes back when I entered the 7th Layer. I'm not interested in risking death to return, so I'm just going to sit here and wait for Riko to come. She's bound to eventually."

Andrew nodded, understanding her mentality. "Time moves much more slowly here than on the surface. You're expecting her to arrive at any moment, aren't you?"

Her smile morphed back into a grin rivalling his own. "Yeah! I bet she'll be here by the time I wake up tomorrow. In the 5th Layer, a few weeks turns to a few months. Imagine how far a day or so goes down here near the bottom?"

"I've been down here a full year, and you're the first person I've seen. I wonder how much things have changed…" The boy hummed to himself, before grunting as he pushed down on the ground to stand up, laughing. "I'll give you a gift. You have no intention of leaving, so I'll pass on all the maps I've made to you. They'll let you navigate around the city tiers and find food pretty easily. There's a lot of farms that still are functional, and window gardens in some of the residential areas. I haven't gone everywhere, but it's a start. I'll give you some of my notes on the wildlife here too. There's no monsters, but there are some plants and animals that you have to be careful of handling."

The woman stared at him, confused by the sudden display of excitement. "Why give me that stuff? We can share, I'll give you my notes as well." She smiled, standing up to face him and crossing her arms. "I don't want you to tell me anything about the truth of the Abyss though. I don't care if you know everything, I want to figure it all out myself, even if you have an edge with being able to read the language and all."

The boy shook his head, and she stepped back, her smile dropping as, even without his grin fading and his eyes poorly illuminated by the fire at this angle, she recognized what he was about to say. "Hey, I just got here. You're not going to go on some suicide quest and abandon me right after we met, right?"

Andrew sighed, tapping the ground with the point of his shoe. "I'll give you the information I know on how to survive down here. I didn't realize that the term 'White Whistle' meant anything different in the current time than mine, but you sound like you know what you're doing. And it's been my intention to make a full journey from the beginning. I never meant to be down here so long, time just sort of slipped by for me. Besides, now that I've seen another person...It's best to leave before I get too attached to you. Otherwise, I'll never want to return."

The woman stared silently, then sighed as she sat down again, reaching for a pile of clothes that rested in a pile alongside various other junk that she'd pulled out of her bag. "Then if you're going to do that, take one of my spare outfits. You're not going to get very far in hand-me-down clothes from generations ago like you've got on now, and I wager you wear a similar size as me. It's the least I can do for you giving me access to this new place, because I want to stick around a while."

The boy blinked, before sitting down in front of her, and reached a hand out to accept the clothing, setting it next to his sleeping bag. "Then I'll accept your generous offer. I have most of the tools I need already lined up, but this will be useful, I didn't have a real delving outfit. I'll hand over my notes to you tomorrow morning. I'll leave later, when the light returns. There's no point leaving at night after all."

"You're going to wait that long? Why not use a glowstone? I have spare helmets if you need-"

"No need. My eyesight is pretty sharp, and I have my own methods of creating light. I've found a bunch of flashlights around here, and there's surprisingly many batteries that still are functioning." At the confused expression on her face, he waved his hand. "Relics that produce light, and the things that power them. Glowstones seem to be more for people who went up the layers and couldn't afford to waste valuable storage on power supplies. But I have strength to spare, I'll just take a really big backpack with me full of everything I need."

The woman picked up her bottle again, staring into the opening as she mused over his statement, before shrugging and tipping it over the fire, leaving the liquid inside to splash against the flaming wood with several loud pops before dropping the empty glass on the ground near the others. "I really don't need to be too hungover tomorrow. The time to celebrate reaching the bottom is over, now I'm interested." Her voice had lowered, her tone more serious as she laced her fingers and rested her elbows on her knees to lean forward, staring at the boy with an intense expression in her slightly creepy purple eyes. "Alright, I am massively drunk right now, so before I pass out, tell me your plan. I want to hear exactly how you intend to avoid the Curse and get to the surface all on your own. And beyond that, how you're going to get away from that _thing_ in the 7th Layer."

He tilted his head, before chuckling. "You saw it, didn't you? That sludge that flows around all over the layer. It's pretty horrifying to witness, and even worse if you know what it really is."

"What are you going to do about it? I steered clear, but I saw what happens when some poor wild animals touched its surface. It doesn't seem possible to defend against."

"Oh, it isn't. There isn't anything you can do if you get caught inside it, it's just game over then. You just need to avoid it, that's really all you can do. As for avoiding the Curse…" He raised his index finger to his mouth. "I won't tell you. Suffice it to say that won't be an issue. You said you wanted to learn the truth yourself, you can start with being left in the dark about my tricks. I may not look it, but I'm an experienced delver. I have my ways."

Without giving her time to respond, he turned around to crawl into his sleeping bag, zipping it up and around his head and burying himself in the warmth as his voice came out muffled but still audible. "Go to sleep. We've got a long day tomorrow, and I'd rather the goodbye not be too sad since we've just met."


	3. Companion

Andrew had already gotten up and working on packing when Lyza awoke, blinking in the darkness as he'd suffocated the campfire overnight. The lighting was a little better with a series of glowstones placed around the area, but she still needed to move her hands in front of her and crawl around to figure out the best way to move. It was a good thing she had trained herself to wake up quickly, it could have been dangerous to be half-asleep trying to move around.

"How long have you been awake? How long until the light returns?" she asked, and he laughed, sitting cross-legged and holding up a knife to one of the glowstones, checking the blade for chips or smudges.

"There's still another six hours left before the light returns. You slept a long time, I've been up for quite a while." He hummed in satisfaction at the knife's quality, setting a plastic sheath over it and placing it in one of the many small pcokets surrounding the large pack he was sitting near, which was opened as he had yet to pack any big supplies. "I already sorted out my maps and planned a route upwards."

She blinked, shifting to stand up and letting her eyes adjust to the low light. "How could you do that if you have no idea how the layout has changed?" she asked, and he waved his hand.

"You saw those big statue things guarding the entrance to the city, right?" he asked, and when she nodded, he continued. "Those were the first iteration of Universal Automaton Systems, a type of robot that the ancient civilization designed. I've been trying to get them working, and I finally got one model to function. I sent it up to the surface yesterday, and it transmitted the path it took back to the console I got working. So, now I at least know the right path up, albeit I don't have the same capabilities or speed that it did."

The woman tilted her head at the statement. "That robot...It wouldn't happen to be a little kid, would it?" she asked, holding her hand beside her. "About...this tall, olive skin, weird helmet?"

He stared at her, before laughing as he turned back to work on picking up his tools, checking each one individually before setting them in their proper places. "So you met it already. It must have passed by when you were heading down. How was it handling? All I know is the path it took, I have no idea how functional it was."

"He didn't seem to recognize anything." she replied, kneeling to help him with his inspections as she tapped the stone in her helmet to see better. "He just sort of was wandering around, I thought he was a Narehate until his arms extended. I took him in for a couple days to rest before he disappeared. He must have just continued upwards without me, then. I wonder if he's okay?"

"His data's stopped coming in now." he replied, holding a couple items in either hand as he mused over which was a better choice for the journey. "Hmm, let's see...I'm not planning on doing any major climbing, so I doubt I need super strong carabiners. They'll just waste space, there's no mountains anywhere after all…" He glanced over at her, before chuckling. "Don't worry." he stated reassuringly. "The UAS are designed for the Abyss, but he's probably living a comfortable life on the surface now. I don't see why he'd bother coming back into the pit."

"I had to fix a problem you didn't notice." she stated, and he turned his head to look at her. "He couldn't speak, and I found an exposed wire. Was that due to you cutting it, or just a random injury?"

He laughed, standing up to walk over to another pile and kneel down to look at a group of papers he picked up, before sorting them out onto the ground in multiple piles. "I never said I was perfect, and I didn't actually know if he was sentient or not, so I only worked a lot on his motor controls and navigation system. Any communication or lack thereof is exactly how it was before I touched it. Hmm, though I did see a warning sign in the building they were stored in that said that UAS3 models run out of memory quickly and start purging themselves every decade or so, so maybe that's why his data hasn't transmitted recently. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll be able to figure out how to get up past the Inverse Forest, I knew that place like the back of my hand and I doubt it's changed so severely I'd lose my way."

He hummed in satisfaction as he stood up, taking one of the piles of paper and walking over to her. She accepted them as he headed over to his sleeping bag to roll it up while he talked. "Those are copies of maps I've made of the 7th Layer and the pattern the sludge moves in, in case you ever decide that you do want to go back upwards. You've been to the 6th Layer, so I assume you're aware that mapping it is pointless."

She nodded, shining the glowstone on her helmet in his direction so he could better see what he was doing, and he hummed happily at the help. "How long will it be before you go?" she asked, and he stopped to look up at the ceiling, quiet for several seconds before replying.

"The light will return in about four hours, maybe a bit more. I want to eat as much as I can before then so I don't waste too much food on the initial journey, and I need to show you the best hunting grounds and places to find spare equipment. If you know what you're doing, you can find anything you want here. This place was built to sustain an entire civilization after all."

~~~4 Hours Later~~~

For some reason, even though it was identical to how it was when they first met, Andrew's grin looked a lot more natural as he stood near the entrance to the city, his oversized backpack resting on his shoulders as Lyza, also wearing her pack out of habit, stood beside him. Just on time, the light had returned, bathing the city in its red glow as she smiled.

"Any farewells? You won't be coming back, after all." she said, and he mused over the question, before turning to face the city, inhaling deeply before speaking.

"I'll surpass you!" he shouted, a simple and loud yell that echoed across the Layer. "I made it to the bottom, and now I'm going back to the top! So you'd better be there, waiting for me on the surface!"

He laughed, a hearty sound void of anything but pure bliss as he turned to face her. "Well, is that an acceptable goodbye?" he asked, before blinking and tilting his head in confusion.

Something about his statement has resonated with the woman, and her smile had dropped as she silently took her pack off, setting it on the ground and unzipping it as he watched. "Er, Lyza?" he asked, and she shook her head, before reaching into her pack to pull out the egg she'd been carrying around.

"Sorry, it's just...I just realized how serious you were." she said, her voice quieter than before. "If you don't mind...I may be a mother, but monsters aren't my field of expertise. I want to take care of this, but since I know so little, it would only suffer down here on the bottom. Could you take it back to where it was for me?"

He blinked, stepping back in surprise. "Weren't you terrified at the thought of it being damaged last night? Why are you suddenly wanting to part with it?"

"I'm not a fool. I've seen what happens when you raise a child in the wrong environment. If I were to care for it, it would only end up food for some stronger creature, or turn against me and force me to kill it. I don't want to lose a child, human or not. I don't need to be drunk to understand that. You're experienced too, aren't you? You're young, but you have the eyes of a White Whistle. I don't know much about you, but you remind me of my mentor...Strong and capable, and fully aware of the dangers the Abyss really holds. Are you as good with kids as her too?"

He chuckled, before reaching behind him to unzip his own bag, which despite how much he'd crammed inside still had plenty of space for the egg if he rolled it into his sleeping bag. "Well, I don't really know who you mentor is, but if I meet them, I'll tell them you said hi...And don't worry. I may be strong, but I'm delicate enough to handle that."

She laughed in response as he took the egg, and though she hesitated to let go, eventually she gave in, crossing her arms to stop herself from reaching for it again as he set it inside his pack. "If you meet her, she'll help you get back to the surface. She'll understand if you tell her that I told you about the Cuse-Warding Vessel."

"How it brought your stillborn child to life? I'm sure that's something only you and she would know about it. Alright, I'll ask her if I see her. What does she look like?"

"She's a White Whistle too, but she's a lot taller than me. She's over two meters tall, and she's really pale and has a strange hairstyle. You'd know her if you saw her, she's very unique, and no matter how long it's been, I don't think she'll look any different. She has a lot more of those Thousand-Men Pins than you do, so she's looked exactly the same for decades."

"Oh, another pin collector? Funny, I knew someone whose goal was to find them all. What's her name?" he asked, and she smiled.

"Ozen." she said, before an expression of confusion crossed her face at the reaction of the boy standing in front of her.

His grin was exactly as it always was, but she could feel the weight of the stare he was giving her, an expression that reminded her only more of her mentor's immovable strength.

"...Ozen, you said?" he asked, and she blinked, nodding as he sighed, raising a hand to his forehead and looked to the ground, now taliing more to himself than her. "Ozen...So it looks like I really do need to keep my end of the promise, then."

Almost as fast as it started, the heavy aura faded as he looked up, shifting the weight of the pack as the egg was added. "Alright! I'm pumped up now, so I'd better head out before I get cold feet!"


	4. Crack

The 7th Layer was a different world from the ruins within the city dome, the buildings and manmade streets replaced with walls glowing pale blue with millions of microscopic creatures clinging to the surface and uneven stone floors that had a perpetual stickiness to them, which lead to an annoying suction every time the boy took a step.

Still, this was a reasonably peaceful start to the journey. Andrew had been fully prepared to deal with some creature attacking as soon as he stepped foot in the caves, but surprisingly, it was quiet.

He could hear running water coming from somewhere, but other than that, there were no sounds of animals running around, whether large or small. When he'd gone down this way, a year ago in his time, there had been many little salamanders and other amphibians underfoot, so prevalent that he could simply drag a net along the ground and catch enough to feed himself on his way.

It looked like he'd need to actually work for food this time, though that wasn't too bad. He was skilled at fishing, and he would be moving quicker upwards than he had downwards. The Relic he possessed was game-breakingly useful for ascending quickly, after all. He couldn't imagine how Lyza would react if she knew he could simply pass through the Curse like it was nothing, so he'd simply hidden the knowledge from her.

Now that he was alone, however, he didn't need to hide it anymore, and since there could be parts of the caverns that rose quickly, it was about time to activate it, just in case. The fact that many Relics didn't require much power was nice, it meant he could simply have it passively running on his person.

He sat down on the stump of a stalagmite that had collapsed at some point in the past, removing his overlarge backpack and setting it beside him, opening one of the side pockets to root around for the artifact, before smiling to himself as he pulled it out.

It was deceptively simple, a piece of cloth that he wrapped around his right arm, tying it tight against his skin just above his elbow. That was it. Such a powerful ability, and yet it took only a few seconds to apply. There was no glow, no glyph instructions, nothing to suggest that it was anything special. How something like this even existed, he didn't know, but it was useful and he had it, so that's all he cared about. He wasn't interested in mining and selling Relics after all, so he was probably the safest delver of all for it to be owned by. For him who didn't care about making many return trips, this was only for going upwards past the 6th Layer. Past that, he could handle on his own even without it.

After applying the Relic, he was about to stand up to continue, before his eyes turned to his pack again, and he sighed, moving to unzip the main pocket and looking inside.

The egg was handling well in its sleeping bag cushion, and he reached his hands inside to lift it out, sitting back down on the rock and holding it in his lap.

It was some sort of birdlike species, based on the shape, but the size and mottled coloration were both very standard of Abyss species, who had an advantage to having big, camouflaged eggs and mostly developed hatchlings. He'd have no idea what it was until it was ready to hatch, and by then, there was a possibility that it would already be dangerous.

Then again, Lyza had mentioned finding it near the top of the 4th Layer, so most likely, it was from higher up. Unless something drastic had happened since he left, he knew every species above that point well, but this was still too common a pattern in many species to recognize at a glance. It could be a giant hammerbeak, or a terror bird, or even some unusual subspecies of pincerbeak, he had no idea.

He rubbed the surface with one hand as the other arm wrapped around it, holding it close to provide it with his body's warmth. The caverns were relatively warm, but he knew that most eggs required a higher temperature to survive, so he'd need to be vigilant if he wanted it to hatch safely.

He wasn't entirely sure why he'd accepted the task so readily. Maybe he just got along really well with Lyza, or somewhere in him he really did want a companion. He'd decided to make the journey on his own and of his own power, but that was more due to his having come down this far with that same power. It would be nice to have a friend to talk to, and he wasn't about to turn back and ask Lyza to join him. She had a daughter to reunite with at the bottom, she couldn't very well do that if they missed each other on the way to their respective destinations.

He briefly wondered if he'd ever meet the girl, before blinking as he looked down, feeling a vibration in the egg's shell as the hatchling inside shifted, and he chuckled, rubbing the top as if to show the creature inside his affection.

"You need a name, don't you?" he asked, humming as he thought it over. "Toma? Hmm, no, I don't know if you'll be male or female, and that's more human than animal. Hmm…" He pondered the question, thinking over various possible names, before chuckling as he lifted it up to eye level.

This was technically Lyza's child, so he'd take inspiration from her and name it after the daughter she talked at length about. Of course, to differentiate, he'd change the name up a bit, but it still felt right to take her lead since he wasn't very good with names himself. "...Rico. That's your name. Rico."

There was no movement to signal it heard him, but he grinned, not expecting a response as it was obviously not ready to react. He had no idea how long it would take for it to hatch, being that this was down below the point where time dilated, so he'd just have to wait and see if it was quick or slow. Perhaps it would react to the dilation the same way he did, though he wasn't entirely sure how the Abyss creatures actually responded to the Curse, especially this deep.

He looked it over, occasionally speaking the name quietly to cement it in his mind. Now that it had a name, there was no going back. He'd bonded to it, so now, it would not just be a creature. Now, it was Rico.

He jolted as he heard something skitter along the ground nearby, looking around as his eyes narrowed. He'd dropped his guard, and when he hadn't let his Pins passively function, being ambushed could have been dangerous. For now, he didn't need them, but if whatever was near got too close, it would be destroyed in seconds and make a decent meal to start off his journey.

As he listened, the skittering took on a strange pattern of moments of something flicking against the ground and silence between the impacts. What was going on?

It went quiet after about a minute, and he blinked as he listened to the now-silent cave. Had it given up after noticing that he was aware of its presence? He set the egg down where he had been sitting so that he could stand up, walking over in that direction to check on the issue. He could easily handle it, there was very little in the Abyss that was a threat when he was alert.

He stood still, looking around where the noise had come from. It was a more open pathway, opening into a still-water pond that had grown over with a similar blue algae to that which lined the walls, and from the swirls in the pond scum, something had recently left the water. So whatever it was, it was amphibious, and from the sound, some sort of insect creature.

He turned around to head back, and his eyes widened as he found himself face to face with the creature.

Somehow, it had avoided his detection and as soon as he was gone, and now sat lying against the rock he'd been sitting on. It was a hideous animal, a mix between the bulbous head and large furcula of springtails, and the large transparent brown body and facial legs of a Daphnia, the size of the creature making the details all the easier to see as it wrapped the beardlike legs around the egg, struggling to move it away from the area as it noticed that it had been discovered.

It was big, but it wasn't very strong, clearly unable to break through the shell as Andrew growled, a sound not fitting his permanent grin as he ran at it, keeping his Pins inactive as he didn't want to accidentally damage the egg.

He was about to kick at the creature before it jolted, the curled up furcula below it springing up and sending it flying into the air, flipping and sticking to the ceiling of the cave with a wet slapping sound as he stared up at it.

He pondered how to get to it without damaging the egg, while the monster's antennae twitched as it smelled its prize, which was held loosely in its legs as it kept itself steady on the ceiling, using its large soft body to cushion its prey.

He needed to attack it, but the egg would be damaged if he tried anything directly, and so he instead moved to the wall below the creature, raising his fist and glaring at it as he brought it forward into the rock.

The force of the punch, using avery low amount of the strength granted by one Pin, created a crater in the stone and vibrated the cave enough to make it lose its balance, and he quickly turned around in order to catch the egg when it fell.

The plan worked. The creature did in fact lose its grip, collapsing down off its perch and tossing the egg aside. He was fast when he used his Pins, he was sure he could catch the egg, so he took the split second before the animal hit the ground to kick it with the single Pin active, sending it flying into a wall, its soft body ruptured by the force of the impact and killing it instantly.

That had worked well, but he froze as he heard a crack, and turned around slowly to see what had happened. His eyes widened at the sight, and he stepped forward, kneeling down to hold his hands over the egg.

It had hit a sharp rock on its way down, his reaction time having been just a bit too long to register where it was before it could hit the ground, and it had split in two, the shell separating to either side as a white sac inside spilled out, liquid oozing from it as the form inside stayed still.

He'd failed to save it. Choosing to attack the creature first had been a bad call, and he'd paid the price by spilling Rico onto the ground.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and not for the first time in his life, he wished he could stop grinning, the cursed expression making it impossible to properly convey the guilt he was now feeling as he gingerly set his hand on Rico's severed shell, pulling it aside to inspect the remains of the-

His eyes widened again as it started to move, and after a few seconds of wiggling, the membrane broke completely, contracting as the thing inside lifted its head to the air, a high-pitched squeaking coming from it as he stared in surprise.

It was covered in slime and its eyes were closed, but he could instantly recognize the species as it was fuly developed, feathers sticking to its body from the eggy goop and flicking the air with its four split tongues, tasting for scents as it struggled to crawl out of the mess it had hatched in.

It must have been ready to hatch for a long time, but the shell had simply been too thick for it. He knew this species, sometimes when conditions weren't right, they were able to go into suspended animation and wait for the environment to break the egg for them. It was a good thing he knew how to handle these, because now, he laughed, sitting down cross-legged to observe it as he knew it had to learn to clean itself off on its own.

He called these creatures "terror birds", but when talking with Lyza, she'd mentioned a different name for them.

As Rico greeted the world, it was the birth of a hatchling corpse-weeper.


	5. Familial Bond

Andrew sat on his rock as he carefully watched the little hatchling, now on high alert now that he had already nearly lost it twice in the space of a few minutes. He had to remember that, despite it being much quieter than it was on his way down, this was still the 7th Layer. There were many caverns to go through, and while there was little that could threaten him, this little defenseless bird was an easy target for anything more dangerous than a neritantan.

So, he watched and waited for it to be ready to move. The terror bird squeaked as it wobbled on the ground, using its heavy egg-soaked wings to drag itself around, leaving smears of albumen on the rock. It couldn't see as the liquid made it impossible for it to open its eyes, so it was just operating on random direction and the small amount of scents it could recognize.

After a few minutes, it realized that if it vibrated its body and flapped its wings, it could shake, sloughing off the goop and fluttering its feathers, now freed of the restraint, to fling the droplets away. The excess made a mess as it splashed around it, but soon, it bent over, flicking its tongues to test out the odd liquid it found itself sitting in before twitching its head, the squeaking stopping as it became curious of this new taste.

Andrew watched as Rico began lapping up the remains of its own egg, its tongues acting like straws to suck up the goopy mess into its beakless mouth. He chuckled as he leaned to set an elbow on his knee, placing his chin on his fist to watch it as it had its first meal.

This was a normal thing for the species, he was aware of that. Eating the egg gave them a boost of protein to replenish the energy burned off by hatching and learning to crawl, and as it finished off the egg on the floor and started licking its own body, it was learning to preen itself, all without ever needing an adult to teach it. Terror birds were social animals, often living in medium-sized colonies of around thirty members, but they still operated on natural selection. Even the hatchlings had to learn to handle themselves.

It did all this without the use of its eyes, still sealed shut while it first learned to move by touch and smell. Unlike the adults of its species, the eyes were still symmetrical, set on the sides of its head as it had yet to develop a preference for which eye to use.

After cleaning itself off and shaking off the remaining liquid, it flufffed its feathers up to dry itself, before lifting its head into the air, twitching it from side to side as it turned to the boy, who blinked as it started crawling to him, its movements still wobbly but with a bit more control now that it had figured out that it could use its clawed feet to grip the rocky terrain.

Rico made a low cooing sound, different than the squeaks from before, as it approached him, and he laughed at the sight. "Finally realized I'm here, didn't you?" he asked, moving his hand to rest open-palmed in the air ahead of the bird.

It bumped into his hand, reeling back and ruffling its feathers in confusion, before tentatively moving forward again, tongues flicking out to rub against the surface of his skin. It wasn't trying to eat now, having had its fill earlier, and he knew that it was simply checking his scent.

It sat back on its rear, its head shifting around as it registered the smell into its memory, before squeaking, shifting its haunches before straightening its legs to hop up the rock and onto his lap, where it curled up and rested its head on his knee.

It was warm from all the activity, and his eyes lit up at the feeling of the creature, moving his hand to rest on its back. The feathers were soft now, having gained shape from the preening it had done and the shafts hardening to give them actual shape, so now, it felt like any other bird, and it reacted in much the same way as one, its wings flapping out as it lifted its head.

The low grumbling sounds it made seemed to be more for announcing that it was aware that he was safe rather than any sort of real communication, and as he looked at it, its eyes slowly began opening, the nictitating membrane sliding back to reveal the massive pale green lens common to its species, the blue iris narrowing as it hissed from the brightness in its eyes, rearing its neck back as it flinched. The caverns certainly were dimmer than the 2nd Layers' harsh sunlight, but Andrew still had his glowstone turned on and shining almost directly at it, and he laughed as he raised his hand to turn it off.

"Sorry about that, Rico." he said, running his hand along its feathers. "First thing you see is me blinding you." As its eyes dilated, getting used to the more natural lighting around it, it returned its head to face closer to him, looking him over as it took in the details of this creature it found itself bonded to.

Terror birds were extremely social animals, and while they generally don't possess an imprinting mechanism, the fact that he was the first thing not to attack it marked him as an ally, and he intended to follow through with that and protect it as best he could. "Andrew." he said, pointing to himself, then pointed at it. "Rico."

"Aaaa…" it said, its voice possessing the usual husky noise that its species were known for, but the tone of his voice was still notable underneath the strange pressure of its vocal cords. "Aaan...Andruuu…"

He laughed, continuing to pet it as he encouraged it to continue. "Keep it up, you'll get it eventually." he stated, and it fluttered its wings again, shifting its feet to nestle in the space between his legs.

"Andrew." it said, and he nodded, raising his hands up next to him to show it had succeeded, and it gave an excited squeak, standing up and hopping so that it was facing him, stretching its long neck up to look more directly at him. Its tongues flapping wildly in the air as it repeated the word, as well as copying the laugh he'd given it. It sounded a little creepy coming from the animal, but it was learning fast, and Andrew couldn't help but wrap his arms around it, proudly embracing the creature.

"Good job, Rico." he said, once again wishing that he could give it a genuine smile. He certainly felt happy, he was already very attached to the creature. He silently thanked Lyza for giving him the chance to meet it, and from the way it rested its head on his shoulder, moving its wings to give its own awkward hug to his torso, he could tell that it too was happy to have a friend.

Normally, being down this far meant certain death for an upper-layer creature like terror birds, but this one was lucky enough to have him on its side. He had a mission to return to the surface after all, and even without Lyza making him promise to, he now wanted to see this journey through with his companion safe as well.

It had a powerful ally in him, and he also was familiar with their species. He'd raise it right while they were still below the boundary with the 5th Layer. Terror birds were incredibly intelligent, he had a strong feeling that he could train it to understand not to attack humans and to communicate effectively. After all, while he wanted to protect it, he also wasn't going to allow dead weight on the expedition.

But all that was in the future when it was a little bigger and had settled into its new life. For now, he had to follow the sound of water and use the cavern's river system to find his way upward. Water always flows from above, after all.

Still, he'd give it some time to rest before they had to move. It had just hatched after all, it was still exhausted from the process of escaping the egg and registering all the new things in the environment around it. He himself wasn't particularly tired, but he did have to remember that this was still a baby.

He released it from his embrace, and it blinked at him, before returning to curling up in his lap, noe resting its head under a wind as it sighed, before its eyes slowly closed and its body went still.

He lightly patted the sleeping creature, before moving his hand so as not to disturb it, and focused on the area around them. While it slept, he would stand guard and defend it if anything was lured by the noise and the smell of egg innards, as well as the corpse of the monster he'd squashed.


End file.
